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Macbeth Essay

Macbeth essayShakespeare’s plays are performed all over the word today as part of the cultural background of Western civilization. They have survived for four centuries and have proved themselves to be of a high, dramatic quality with an appeal to modern audiences. It could for example be the words, which are lost to us today that appeal us. But also the ideas of the world, morals, philosophy, and religion were different from those of today. The Elizabethans were much closer to a medieval way of thinking than to our modern world picture: In politics the idea of the absolute ruler developed. The middle class also secured jobs for themselves and influence at court and replaced the old class of noble-men, who had previously received the king’s favors. The king was regarded as being in total control of making the laws and seeing them carried out. These powers were seen as having been given to him directly by God. It meant that he was only responsible for his actions to God. The reformation led to a new belief in the individual; a man had a free will and could therefore be responsible and is held responsible for his own actions, which were undertaken on the basis of his conscience. At the same time there was a belief in destiny, which shaped the life of man. The medieval idea of the universe was that the Earth was the centre of the universe. It was surrounded by spheres (9 or 11), with the Moon in the sphere closest to the earth. In the imperial heaven (the sphere after the 9th sphere) God was to be found, surrounded by large numbers of angels. The closer one got to the heavens, the purer and more brilliant were the spheres. Everything below the moon (the sublunary region) was not stable, but changeable and in constant danger of being destroyed. The earth was to be considered as a dumping ground of the universe and consequently heavy and filthy. The main reason of this was the Fall of Man. The concept of the “chain of being” is close to the idea of cosmic order....

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...Much speculation has been made about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. Some scholars argue that parts of his plays were written by other playwrights, some argue that he did not write any of his plays, while others believe that he did not exist at all. One passage in particular that raises a few questions is Act III, Scene V, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, where the three witches meet Hecate. It is believed by some, including myself that this portion of the play was not written by Shakespeare, but instead by Thomas Middleton.
To begin, Shakespeare is common for writing in blank verse or prose. Blank verse was often used by noble characters and contained a rhyme pattern known as iambic pentameter, which is an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable, repeated five times to create a line. Therefore, a blank verse is simply an unrhymed iambic pentameter. Prose were often used by servants or members of the lower classes and contains no pattern of accentual rhythm. Now the unusual thing about Act III, Scene V, is that Hecate speaks in neither of these poetic styles, but instead speaks in iambic tetrameter with rhyming couplets, which is an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable and then repeated four times to create a line. An example of iambic tetrameter is in Hecate’s monologue when she says “Your vessels and your spells provide”, the red refers to the accented syllable whereas the blue refers to the unaccented syllable. Now,...

...1.What did you learn through a change in the character?
In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, we learn that the idea of using evil as a short cut to achieve our ambitions in life is exceedingly dangerous. After the witches' prophecies, Macbeth becomes full of ambition and commits numerous evil deeds in order to fulfil his desire to become king. This change in the character reveals that even though it may seem expedient to use evil, in the long run, evil cannot be trusted and it extracts a heavy price for its help; in Macbeth's case, the loss of everything he loves.
During the first act of the play, Macbeth’s admirable qualities are easy to observe. Macbeth is a loyal vassal of Duncan and proves his courage on the battlefield by defeating the Norwegian army which is assisting a rebellion against Duncan's reign. For example, when the captain is reporting back their victory to King Duncan, he describes Macbeth as ‘brave Macbeth’ and tells how Macbeth ‘unseamed [Macdonwald] from the nave to chops, /And fixed his head upon our battlements’. However, returning from the battle, Macbeth and Banquo meet the three witches and Macbeth is given prophecies which tempt him and test his moral courage. Unfortunately, Macbeth cannot withstand his ambitions to become King and eventually murders Duncan, which reveals that his moral fortitude is not...

...The texts I have chosen to compare to Macbeth are; The Laboratory by Browning and Summer of 1969 by Seamus Heaney. The laboratory is about a woman who discovered that her partner was having an affair with another woman. She went to an apothecary and asked for a poison to be made to kill the woman who her partner had cheated with. This can be linked to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth because they wanted to kill people because of their own reasons which to a normal person may seem irrational or immoral. This dramatic monologue is set in the Victorian time. Summer of 1969 is about an Irish man in Spain, Madrid, around the time of the Irish civil war. It emphasizes his doubts and uncertainties about going back to fight for his country or staying in Madrid away from all the fighting. These two poems are linked to Macbeth and I will compare the doubts and uncertainties in both poems with Macbeth.
At the time of Macbeth women were seen as lesser than men or that men were always in control and had power over what the women said and did. Whereas all throughout this play by Shakespeare, Macbeth is controlled by his wife, Lady Macbeth, and is constantly overruled and is seen to be the figure head of their relationship and can control Macbeth by manipulating him into doing things which he doesn’t want to do . This implies that she is mentally stronger and smarter...

...biggest downfalls of men. Guilt is a feeling that people get when they believe it does not fit a moral standard of society (www.wikipedia.org). Many people believe their conscience speaks to them and tells them what they have done is incorrect. Conscience is a feeling or voice that guides a person to believe what is right and what is wrong. Guilt can also be described as a feeling that a person’s conscience gives them when the person’s action is deemed a wrong by the conscience. Guilt is a defense mechanism used by the brain to tell the person what they did was wrong. Macbeth experiences much guilt in the play written by Shakespeare entitled, Macbeth. Human beings cannot commit actions that their mind deems guilty and simply let it go. Rather, the guilt in their mind will affect different things such as their behavior and their further actions towards others. This is seen in every act of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and affects the protagonist’s reign as king and the rest of his short-lived life.
Guilt is a psychological matter and thus must be thought of as theory rather than fact. Many researchers in the field of psychology have delved into this matter, one of these researchers being Alice Miller. She stated that, "many people suffer all their lives from this oppressive feeling of guilt, the sense of not having lived up to their parents' expectations....no argument can overcome these guilt feelings, for they have their...

...Sheahan Prabhu
Ms. Bancheri
ENG - 3U1
November 29th, 2010
Macbeth and Pi's Gradual loss of Morals
Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi and Shakespeare's tragic play Macbeth reveal certain similarities, when juxtaposed. These two texts display the gradual loss of morals between the characters of Macbeth and Pi. This is conveyed through specific events within the two books, such as Macbeth and Pi's lust to kill, their guilt and themselves going crazy, will articulate the loss of their morals. The following analysis will discuss these themes extensively.
Macbeth and Pi Patel portray their gradual loss of morals through their lust to kill. Macbeth's reason for killing is for power. For instance, Macbeth's lust to kill is demonstrated when he lists the advantages and disadvantages for killing the king (Shakespeare, I.vii.1-28). This is one of Macbeth's soliloquy, he spends a lot of time deciding whether to kill Duncan. In this example Macbeth knows that there are more disadvantages of killing the king than advantages. So, Macbeth hesitates a lot because it is his first murder. Another example is illustrated, when Macbeth convinced the murderers to execute Banquo (III.i.77-75). Macbeth wants to kill Banquo because, he wants to stay the king of Scotland, and he also knows that Banquo's descendants will be kings, which was prophesised by the three...

...Sutharsan Raguram
Ms. Andreopoulos
ENG 3U1
Friday, May-04-12
“Power as a Corrupting Force in Frankenstein and Macbeth”
Power as a corrupting force has been present from the beginning of time and is often revealed in many works of literature. In the novel Frankenstein by Marry Shelly and Macbeth by William Shakespeare, corruption of power is well brought forth in the characters in both texts. In both stories, characters reveal power as a corrupting force through their thirst of knowledge. Characters also reveal power as a corrupting force through character change. In addition, the character’s action justify how corrupted they really are. Therefore, power corrupts the individuals because of character’s extreme ambition which leads to their demise.
Victor, Macbeth and the monster’ extreme ambition gets them seek for knowledge that leads to gaining power which corrupts them leading to their demise. Macbeth is a very good nobleman because of his loyalty to Scotland and during the battle he defeats Macdownald, Norway and the Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth’s thirst for knowledge and extreme ambition originates when he is walking and sees the witches for the first time. Witches tell Macbeth, “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis. All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor. All hail Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter.” (1.3.45-50) Macbeth’s extreme...

...comparing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to each other, the main similarity between them that must be mentioned is that they both have high ambitions for royalty and greatness. Beside the only one significant similarity, they also differ with two distinct differences. Throughout the play, they both portrayed as evil characters who have committed the deaths of other characters, however the driving force of their cruel behavior are totally different. The reason that leads Lady Macbeth to her menacing personality was self-denial while Macbeth’s driving force was motivated by his big greed. The flaws each possessed resulted their downfall and this is the last different when comparing Macbeth and his wife.
The main similarity that Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth both shared was their high ambition for royalty and greatness. That was also the foundation for committing all the murders throughout the play which are caused by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Due to the prediction of the three witches “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor...shalt be King hereafter” (Act 1, Scene 3). The prophecies not only triggered the ambitions in Macbeth but also give rises of bigger ambitions in Lady Macbeth. The death of King Duncan portrayed an example in the play that clearly showed how Lady Macbeth delivered herself with...

...The Supernatural Aspects of Macbeth
What are the main sources of evil in the play? How does Shakespeare get this across to an audience?
The witches are the main evil in the play even though they only appear 4 times in the story, but each time they appear they always create an evil atmosphere. When I say 'the main evil in the play' this is my opinion, I feel they are the main because they are pure evil incarnate and they are what trigger the whole thing off. I feel when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth he meant it to be on two levels, one level being that the witches are real and there to be seen, this was for the less educated. The other level being that the witches are just a figment of his imagination or hallucinations as he does go on to hallucinate later on in the play when he says "Is this a knife I see before me…" he sees a knife covered in blood also Banqouos ghost could also be a hallucination as his guilty conscience gets to him for killing his best friend.
Shakespeare makes a clever choice in putting the witches in to the play, because without them 'Macbeth' would be about a man who thought he could be king and went around slaughtering people to get to where he wanted to be. It still would have been a play but it wouldn't have been as good because the spooky, eerie effect wouldn't have been created.
The old hags are supposedly really ugly, as Banquo says in 'Act 1 Scene 3' "so withered, and so wild in...